kelly ayotte known as a particular fire brand but came out with very, very strong language and said she would put a hold on susan rice's nomination. >> look, two things were surprising here. number one, a visit like this when you're actually not the nominee to be secretary of state, is a little odd. we were talking with other reporters earlier and no one can really remember these types of diplomatic visits for someone not officially nominated. after the criticism of rice softened this past weekend a lot of us expected this would be a get nice pow wow. it turned out to be awfully different, alex, and going forward it seems like the gop has centered on this is going to be their battle, their political battle, they feel they can score at lot of points on and the question comes back to how much capital is the white house willing to spend. i want to leave you with one scenario before i cut off. if john kerry is nominated to be secretary of state, there's a special election in massachusetts, duval patrick, could he nominate himself to be senator from massachusetts? or i've heard from some dem